Component 2 - Uk Politics - Parliament Flashcards
1
Q
Backbenchers
A
- Don’t hold office in government but are members of local councils and it behind the front benchers
2
Q
Frontbenchers
A
- Invited to Parliament by the PM to join the government often senior ministers and secretaries
3
Q
Parliamentary Privileges
A
- Grant certainly legal immunity to members of both houses to help them perform their duties without interference from outside of the houses
4
Q
Whip
A
Maintains party discipline
5
Q
Mace
A
- A golden mate needed to start a debate
- Ceremonial feature
- Can be used to end the debate if it is becoming too heated
6
Q
Features of the House of Commons
A
- On the left the sit
- A mace used to start debate
- room for 430 MPS
- Speaker of the house is that keep order and invite and piece to speak
- Prime Ministeris the dispatcher
7
Q
What is the role of the speaker of the house?
A
- Maintain ordering the comments
- Get MPs to follow rules like not naming people
- must remain impartial
- Must remain transparent
- Can expel people from the house to maintain order
8
Q
What are urgent questions?
A
- Question of an urgent character and relates to matters of public importance
- allows MPs not in government ask questions of ministers without giving notice
- To ask a question it must be presented to the speaker first and he will decide if it will be allowed
9
Q
Hereditary peer
A
- The right to sit in the House of Lords is because their family was in the House of Lords
10
Q
Life peer
A
- Added to the house by their Prime Minister because of services to the nation
11
Q
Peer
A
- Appointed the house for no reason
12
Q
Crossbenchers
A
- A minor party or independent member of the House of Lords
- They sit perpendicular to the government and opposition benches
13
Q
Features of the House of Lords
A
- Opposition party sits on the left
- bishops have a place to sit
- On the right pairs who are in the majority party sit
- When voting a bell rings and they only have eight minutes
- 805 members of the House of Lords
- The House of Lords is not democratic
- They are not bound by party manifesto
14
Q
Function of the House of Lords
A
- Debate - legislation and current issues
- Scrutiny and accountability
- Legislation - revisions of bills
15
Q
Five functions of parliament
A
- Legislation
- Scrutiny and accountability
- Recruitment of ministers
- Debate
- Representation
16
Q
Parliamentary scrutiny
A
- Close examination and investigation of government policy actions and spending
- An essential function which requires minister to justify and explain their actions
17
Q
Prime Minister’s questions
A
- Were the leader of the opposition and third largest party and back benches are allowed to ask questions on Wednesdays at noon
18
Q
Accountability
A
- The process of monitoring elected officials
19
Q
Question time
A
- ministers of government departments get asked questions on a rotata
20
Q
The opposition
A
- The largest party in the House of Commons that is not in government
21
Q
Opposition
A
- The parties and people who are not members of governing parties
22
Q
Select committees
A
- A committee responsible for scrutinising the work of government or government department
- Carried out by the House of Commons committee or the House of Lords committees
- ## Composition of committee is reflected by majorities in government
23
Q
How effective is parliamentary questions?
A
Effective
- Opposition and those outside of government can ask questions
- televised so encourages political awareness
Ineffective
- More of a public show than scrutiny
- questions can be asked by whips to flatter rather than probe
- Only half an hour, not enough time
- Disordered
24
Q
How effective is select committee scrutiny?
A
Effective
- Committee chairs selected by an anonymous vote
- Request documents, others can’t
- Can put together unanimous committee reports to be shown to the government
Ineffective
- Internally selected
- Committees choose what does scrutinise
- Request for information can be denied
- Government does not have to act on committee suggestions
25
10 core tasks of select committees
- strategy
- Policy
- Expenditure and performance
- Draft bills
- Bills and delegated legislation
- Post legislative scrutiny
- european scrutiny
- Appointment
- Support for the house
- Public engagement
26
Redress of grievances
- MPs don’t have enough time to respond to all their constituents issues
27
Bicameral Parliament
Made up of two parts/chambers: the House of Commons and Lords
28
Treasury Benches and Opposition Benches
Treasury Benches: where the PM, his cabinets and backbenchers sit.
Opposition Benches: where the non-government MPs, leader of the opposition and shadow cabinet sit
29
How effective is the process of legislation in the House Commons?
**Effective**
- Commons can stop legislation (Eg, Theresa May’s difficulty passing Brexit legislation)
- Commons can significantly amend legislation
**Ineffective**
- Usually a majority in the Commons so legislation is rarely defeated
(Eg, Blair didn’t lose a vote between 1997-2005)
- Commons have the final say
- Royal assent is a ceremonial practise
- Whips control party votes
30
How effective is debate in the House of Commons?
**Effective**
- The Wright reforms have given more power to the Backbenchers to influence parliament
- Increase in the number of debates on pressing and current issues
- E-petitions can now be discussed if they gain 100,000 signatures
- Regular debates at the end of each day for 40 min
**Ineffective**
- Debating is time limited
- Whips mean often only the party line is heard
- Poor attendance of debates
- Smaller parties can be neglected
31
How effective is representation in the Commons?
**Effective**
- MPs raise constituent concerns through oral and written questions
- Private members bills and adjournment debates can be used to raise concerns
- MPs hold meetings/surgeries with members of their constituencies
- Parliament is becoming more representative
**Ineffective**
- Vote for party rather then representative
- FPTP system means some are elected with less than half of the votes
- Parliament is not representative of society (only 220 out of 650 MPs were women in 2019 - highest every
- Only 50% of MPs went to state schools
32
The Legislative Process
- The Queens Speech
- First Reading
- Second Reading
- Committee stage
- Repot stage
- Third reading stage
- The Lords (process repeated)
- Royal Assent
12CR3
33
4 Powers of the Commons
- Initiate, amend and (veto) reject legislation
- Reject legislation from governing parties manifestos
- Government budge is subject to approval by the Commons
- Government can dismiss a government. Vote of no confidence
34
Lord Spiritual
Senior clergy from the Church of England and their membership is fixed at 26 members
35
Powers of the House of Lords (3)
- Delay legislation for up to one year - they have no veto
- Amend legislation (parliamentary ping-pong)
- Scrutinise the executive through select committees
36
Salisbury convention
Lords could not obstruct measures set out in Governemnt manifestos only recommend reasoned amendments
37
How effective is legislative processes in the House of Lords?
**Effective**
- Legislation is more easily defeated in the lords as their is less of a clear majority
- Lords more likely to rebel against whips
Crossbenchers mean the outcome is less predictable
**Ineffective**
- Has no legislative veto
- Delay of legislation can be over-ruled
- Salisbury Convention
38
How effective is debate in the House of Lords?
**Effective**
- More time can be spent on debate
- Peers are experts in particular fields
- Quality of debate is higher than in the Commons
**Ineffective**
- Long debates sometimes result in little achieved
- Poor attendance
- Some only debate what they are interested in
39
How effective is scrutiny/accountability in the House of Lords?
**Effective**
- High levels of expertise can lead to forensic and detailed questioning
- Allowed to pick areas to scrutinise
- More time to scrutinise
**Ineffective**
- Only junior ministers are held to account
- Who scrutinises the Lords?
- Areas of scrutiny can be picked by the Lords
